Glass Etching

Well, it was a hot Sunday and there were a million things to be done around the house, but my motivation was at an all time low! My crafting juices were flowing but I just felt scattered and when I would try to develop one craft in my head, I would end up thinking about something else totally unrelated. I decided to just pick up a book and relax. The last thing I want to do is create a crafting disaster because I couldn't focus long enough to do something properly!

As I was reading my book, I remembered that I had everything ready to try out glass etching for the first time. Trying a new craft is always daunting because you have a vision in your head of how great it is going to be. Sometimes, unfortunately,  it really doesn't turn out like you had hoped. I am hard on myself but I always have my husband there who is my biggest cheerleader. I could wrap a picture frame in newspaper and he would think it was the greatest thing he'd ever seen... bless him!

So I realized half way through the chapter of the book I was reading that I was sitting there reading the words, but I was crafting in my head and retained nothing of what I was reading. (I guess that's when you know your obsessed!) I put the book down and made my way to the craft room. :)

I collected all the items I needed and read and re-read the etching cream instructions. I didn't want to ruin the nice jar I had so I wanted to make sure that I was doing everything right! I got my stencil, jar etching cream and paintbrush ready.

Armor Etch that I purchased at Michael's

A jar I had purchased

   

The stencil I created in Photoshop and had printed in vinyl

 It took me about an hour to get the stencil on the jar so that it wasn't crooked. I had applied vinyl to my walls and other things but this was by far the hardest application I had ever done. Getting something straight when your working with a circular object that rolls made me want to chuck the jar out the window! Thank goodness my husband came up to check on me just before I totally lost my sanity, and helped me apply it straight. Definitely a two person job! So once we had everything in place, it was the moment of truth. I once again read the instructions and started to apply the cream. It was a lot more watery than I had anticipated and because the instructions say to apply liberally, I was in a little bit of a panic. The cream seemed to spread out a lot, and as I was rolling the jar to get the other letters, the cream moved too. It says to keep the cream on for 60 seconds and to wash off with water once the time is up. We kept it on a little longer and washed it off and the two of us waited in anticipation for my new amazing flour jar to appear!

I totally freaked out because at first it was hardly noticeable. Once I dried the jar it slowly started to show up and it looked alright! I could breath a sigh of relief! Upon closer inspection you can see that some places are a little cloudier than others, and that we should have put a thicker coat on. I explained this all to my husband but he was convinced that it was "AWESOME!" :) We filled it up with flour and although its not PERFECT, it was a great first attempt, and every time I go to bake something I will remember how much fun Kevin and I had! :)

Our finished glass etched Flour Jar